Oberyn Martell Oberyn Martell enters Game of Thrones with a bang in the first episode of the new season, which premiered last night last night (unless you rely on HBO GO, in which case it didn’t). Martell, played by Pedro Pascal, is a Prince of Dorne, known as the “Red Viper,” who comes to King’s Landing bent on revenge.

“It is a juicy role,” author George R. R. Martin told VF Hollywood, “Oberyn is great. In the books he was instantly popular the moment he appeared.”

At the premiere party in March, Pascal, who was born in Chile and raised in the U.S., described his circuitous route to nabbing the role. “It was a really, really funny story, because it was an interesting audition process where I had to put myself on tape first, and then they watched that. I did that a couple of times, and then they asked me to come to Belfast to meet everybody,” Pascal said. “And I was under the impression that this was basically, like, round three, let’s nail this, and convince them I am, indeed, the guy for this part. But they had already decided, I just didn’t know it. So I had kind of walked into a room thinking I was sort of like continuing to audition, and they were congratulating me, and hugging me and saying how glad they were that I was there, and sending me to costume fittings. And internally I was freaking out, because, I’m like, I don’t understand—did I get the job?”

He then had to do some training. “I did have to learn how to do some Wushu martial arts, which is an acrobatic martial art, sort of spin a spear around like a helicopter propeller, and do a lot of fooling around.” And you don’t spin spears around without making a mess.

“I thwacked myself in the face, and in the knees. I broke things. I bought a curtain rod from Home Depot and practiced in my apartment after I got the part. I broke a lamp. I was too embarrassed to go outside and do it, because I didn’t want people to see,” Pascal said. “But then I got the hang of it, and of course, I just put my trust onto them to make me look good.”

The role was more demanding than he had anticipated, which, Pascal says, is what made it exciting. “Every single time I thought I had things [down], I got my groove, and then something crazy would happen. And it stayed sort of brilliantly challenging all the way through the whole season for me.”

With that statement, we assume this character will continue causing mayhem all through season four? “It’s a steady presence,” Pascal said, laughing. “He does not waver.”